Charlie James Gallery is delig
hted to present Eyes Words\, our second solo show of photographs and collag
e by LA artist Richard Kraft. A visual work in three movements\, Eyes Words
consists of two iterations of Kraft’s Tube Portraits—one a series of large
-scale photographic prints\, the other a collection of one hundred miniatur
e photographic images. These two rooms are separated by an installation of
collages and drawings that are composed entirely of language. Separately an
d in relationship to one another\, these three elements probe the tensions
between the known and the unknown\, meaning and the inscrutable while creat
ing a different kind of space of the imagination and the interior mind.

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Inspired by Walker Evans’s Many Are Call
ed\, the Tube Portraits are black-and-white photographic stills from video
taken surreptitiously of travelers on the London Underground. Kraft selects
and re-photographs split-second moments during which each subject seems to
reveal something private and naked in this very public space. He shifts co
lor to black-and-white\, then crops tightly on each face\, almost eliminati
ng the physical world in which they exist. Many of the faces simply float i
n a deep void of black or a haze of gray\, which upon closer inspection sta
rt to dissolve into interlaced lines – the face as screen.

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In the first room seven large Tube Portraits are pres
ented\, each nearly four feet high. Creating a cathedral-like atmosphere\,
the portraits convey a kind of emotional infinity\, each seemingly a window
into the complexity of a human life. The presentation in the main gallery
is in explicit contrast to the basement installation\, where a grid of one
hundred tiny tube portraits will be presented. From a distance this piece i
s an abstract composition of grays and blacks against a white background\,
but closer inspection reveals multiple series of images (some depicting the
same subjects as in the upstairs gallery) each printed in the form of a po
stage stamp from an undeclared country.

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Between these two installations the rear gallery installation serves as
an interlude of sorts. In this chamber Kraft presents a number of monumenta
l text pieces\, one of which\, entitled Ulysses\, is a 5 x 8 foot collage i
n which every page of James Joyce’s text has been cut up and reassembled. I
n two twinned large scale drawings Kraft reinterprets Franz Kafka’s famous
Letter to his Father. Just as the “Tube Portraits” radiate the tension betw
een what we can see with our own eyes\, what we may never know\, and what w
e might possibly imagine\, these works—though composed only of words—ask th
e viewer to ponder the space between meaning and its absence.

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Richard Kraft grew up in London and lives in Los A
ngeles. Kraft earned his BFA at Parsons School of Design and his MFA at the
University of Michigan. His work has been exhibited in galleries such as L
.A. Louver\, Rosamund Felsen\, Greg Kucera and non-profit spaces including
the Portland Art Museum\, Bemis Center for Contemporary Art\, the Photograp
hic Resource Center\, among others. He has frequently used public spaces fo
r installations with work appearing on the sides of buses and in library ai
sles\, as well for performances such as at Oxford Circus in London and alon
g the full length of Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles. In the summer of 20
09\, he conducted a series of performances at Speakers’ Corner in London an
d at several rural sites in Scotland and Northern England. Most recently he
has embarked on a series of walking performances (for anywhere from one to
one hundred walkers). Walks have already taken place in cities such as Los
Angeles and Las Vegas\, and remote locations such as Death Valley and the
Wendover Airfield in Wendover\, Utah. Siglio Press will publish an artist’s
monograph in 2013. Siglio has already released six multiples (100 Soldiers
for a Revolution\, Untitled: Kapitan Kloss\, Two Tube Portraits\, R.S. A L
ibrary Portrait\, Conturbatio: A Selection and Study for Ulysses/Let’s Look
Around ). Kraft has a solo exhibition in the fall of 2013 at the Laguna Ar
t Museum.